Exactly a month ago, I put up an article on one of Masayuki "Martin" Suzuki's（鈴木雅之）earliest songs as a solo performer, "Tandem Run". Well this time around, I'm getting back to the relative present in his career by covering his March 2019 16th original studio album, "Funky Flag".
Arguably the most famous track for a lot of anime fans is "Love Dramatic"（ラブ・ドラマティック）as the opening theme song for the first season of the hit "Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai ~ Tensai-tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen"（かぐや様は告らせたい〜天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦〜）. Yup, this guy is now 65 years old and as a lot of the comments underneath the video have pointed out, Martin has charisma for kilometres.
I just want to take care of some of my own highlights from "Funky Flag", including the title track, "Ai no Funky Flag"（愛のFunky Flag...Funky Flag of Love） which, not surprisingly, has dollops of funk and even some Motown sprinkled in there. One big observation is that the album has a lot of big songwriters involved in the album and that includes lyricist Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）and composer/musician Tomoyasu Hotei（布袋寅泰）coming up with this quintessentially Martin tune (and yep, Hotei is on the guitar here) as the singer exhorts folks to get ready for a good party night. Martin and Hotei also provide the background vocals along with R&B songbird Harumi Tsuyuzaki（露崎春女）.
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| Good golly Molly! Suzuki has so much charisma that he needs five bodies to hold it all! |
"Secret Boogie"（シークレット・ブギー）by Kiyoshi Matsuo（松尾潔）and Yoshihiro "Maestro-T" Toyoshima（豊島吉宏）is sultry and snaky as the lyrics go into somebody lusting for that target of desire. To be honest, the first time I heard "Secret Boogie", I almost did a double-take at one of the lyrics (if I'd been drinking water, I would have made Danny Thomas proud) but reading the liner notes for the song, I saw that it was "Funk with me"! Ah.
Not sure whether Martin or anyone else involved saw something at that massive Shibuya intersection, but "Scramble Kousaten"（スクランブル交差点...Scramble Intersection） is pure love across the rain-slicked pavement. I mentioned those famous songwriters and here, we've got Takaki Horigome（堀込高樹）from Kirinji（キリンジ）and Tomita Lab（冨田ラボ）, aka Keiichi Tomita（冨田恵一）, on lyrics and melody respectively. There's something so very 60s Bacharach about the style and arrangement of "Scramble Kousaten" that the joy-filled fellow in the story is willing to do a Fred Astaire pirouette during the crossing.
"Turn off the light" was composed by Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）and written by Goro Matsui（松井五郎）. Abe has been involved in creating a number of songs for Martin over the years such as the 1989 "Kuu na"（くーな）, and here, he and Matsui weave a melancholy mid-tempo song with a bit of bossa nova about how although love can bring a lot of wonderful things, it can also trap someone in a time-stopped room of woe if it's broken. Martin really can wear his heart on his sleeve.
One more song that I'll put up here is "BAZOOKA" which was all created by Gota Nishidera（西寺郷太）of the band NONA REEVES. It also has tons of funk but in the intro, I think that I even heard some New Jack Swing. "BAZOOKA" fairly percolates all throughout as Martin buzzes about getting that first blast of fall-in-love right between the eyes.
Hopefully, I'll take care of the remaining tracks in the months to come but for those who have discovered the wonders of Suzuki as the King of Love Songs through "Kaguya-sama", then have a go at "Funky Flag" which peaked at No. 8 on Oricon. In addition, you can take a gander at his most recent "ALL TIME ROCK 'N' ROLL".
https://music.apple.com/mo/album/funky-flag/id1515074242
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| The King is holding court. |
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